It is conventionally known (for example, JP 2000-168389A) as one type of vehicle control system to control the switching operation of a gear shift range of an automatic transmission of a vehicle in accordance with a range selecting operation of a shift lever provided in a range selector.
It is furthermore known (for example, JP 2003-242567A) as another type of vehicle control system to control the switching operation of ON/OFF of the engine of a vehicle in accordance with the operation of an ignition key.
Furthermore, in the above two types of control systems, the shift lever and the ignition key are normally provided at different positions of the vehicle. Therefore, when a driver of the vehicle is about to start the engine and move the vehicle, the driver needs to operate the ignition key to turn on the engine, switch the operation target from the ignition key to the shift lever and then select the gear shift range such as D (drive) range or R (reverse) range. Accordingly, the change of the operation target makes a series of vehicle operations before moving of the vehicle cumbersome.